The last 3 months have brought great changes in my life. In March my husband, Larry, was called to be the new pastor of Calhoun Baptist Church in St. Matthews, SC. He had been corresponding and talking to the deacons of this church since December and we visited there the first part of March to officially candidate. So this was not a surprise. We actually had known for 3 years that God was going to move us. We just didn’t know where and when.

From the time that Larry announced his resignation at Heritage Baptist Church we had 2 months to prepare to move. Our house and another building in town needed to be prepared to sell. I had to resign from my decorating job of 14 years. We had other positions to resign and decisions to make about what to move, trash or sell. The time flew by and soon we were down to the last couple of weeks. This is when the Lord gave me an object lesson about how we treat the people in our lives.

There were people who suddenly wanted to take us out, have us over or spend time telling us what we had meant to them over the years. It is always nice when friends want to show their appreciation; but, here’s what I thought. Why now? It would have been nice if some of those friends had said thank you, taken us out or done something else nice during some of our truly depressing times. Yes, I know I am as guilty as anyone in this regard. I generally procrastinate on things like writing notes or taking time to do something nice just to show that I care. After all, I can always do it tomorrow. The problem is that tomorrow never seems to come or suddenly it is there staring us in the face and it’s too late.

So why don’t we do this for others on a regular basis? We often wait until people are leaving or we have lost them in death to suddenly show how much we care for them. Most of us live such busy lives we are overwhelmed with the tyranny of the urgent. We spend our days just trying to get through most of our to do list and we never schedule in time to let someone know how much we care for them or appreciated something that they did.

In my training in college and at other times in my life I was taught to schedule family & friend times as well as business appointments. Maybe we should do that each week. Pick a loved one and schedule time to write them a note, phone them or do something special with them. A word of encouragement or thanks can sometimes be the one thing that a person needed to keep going on a very bad day. All of us at times need to be reminded that what we do for the Lord and others is not in vain. Receiving that kind of affirmation a little at a time could be the blessing that would inspire someone to take one more step toward victory.

Isaiah 50:4 says “The Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary: …” This is my challenge to myself and you. Take the time to encourage and thank others. Let’s make it a part of our weekly schedule.